Nardo Nagtzaam made the trip in his mind many times during the past 10 months.

Those trips didn't take 22 hours, like the one he made with the Mercyhurst men's hockey team to Alaska last weekend. But his latest trek was much more special.

"It felt good to be with the boys again. Just to be with the boys on the road, on the plane ride to Alaska was great," said Nagtzaam, a junior forward, who played in his first two games since suffering the first of two lower-body injuries in January. The opportunity to play alongside his teammates was "a big motivation to get back in game shape," said Nagtzaam, 23, who missed the first five games of this season with an injury suffered in the opening week of practice last month.

He's not in game shape yet.

The games against Alaska in Fairbanks were "a little rough, rusty, not the way I want to be," he said. "I'll get there."

A full week of practice, which the Lakers haven't enjoyed since the week Nagtzaam was injured, will help him make progress. So will more game action, starting with the team's Atlantic Hockey Association opener against Air Force today at Mercyhurst Ice Center. That's why coach Rick Gotkin chose to put him in the lineup last weekend.

"When he's playing the right way, and he's feeling good physically and mentally," Gotkin said, "we think he's a real weapon for us."

Nagtzaam finished second on the team with 30 points (11 goals, 19 assists) in 38 games as a freshman two seasons ago, which earned an invitation to Washington Capitals rookie development camp in July 2012. He was injured at that camp. After that, Gotkin said, "he was never really right. He looked tentative."

Nagtzaam, who finished second on the team with 30 points (11 goals, 19 assists) in 38 games as a freshman two seasons ago, finally feels healthy. Now he has to get past concerns over possibly being injured again.

"I've got to stop thinking about it," he said. "Mentally it's there some days, especially when you're not performing as you want to be."

Meanwhile, he will work on building chemistry with new linemates Zac Frischmon, a two-way forward, and physical, hard-working forward Kyle Cook.

"He's obviously a good player. It's nice to play with good players," Frischmon said. Nagtzaam wants to be better than good.

"You've got to get better," he said. "It's going to take a little bit more (time), but I'll get there sooner or later."

VICTOR FERNANDES can be reached at 870-1716 or by e-mail. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/goeriehockey. Read the Shootout hockey blog at GoErie.com/blogs/shootout and post comments.